Hello astronomy fans! Duane and I got out there for 7 and a half hours last night. While we were setting up and listening to the Twins beat the Royals, we were treated to a loooonnnnggg meteor that started above the eastern horizon in Pegasus, traveled thru Cygnus, Lyra and finished in Hercules. WOW!! It was as bright or a little brighter than Vega and lasted at least 3 seconds. That one is getting posted to the American Meteor Society It happened at 9:14:10 p.m.
Jupiter showed three moons to begin with and must have had one in shadow behind the planet. It reappeared by 10p.m. a ways out from the planet. I'd like to watch one of those happen in front of my eyes one of these nights.
I did Sinus Lunicus, Crater Cassini and Valles Alpes for the Lunar II program.
We had a long search for the starfield of SS Cygni, made more challenging by some partly cloudy skies. After an hour and a half we pinned down where this interesting cataclysmic variable star resides. We intend to keep an eye on this to witness its next eruption. There is an interesting article on it in this months ASTRONOMY magazine.
Then we went "Herschel hunting". I got NGC 278 (elliptical galaxy in Casseopia, very nice), NGC 381 (open cluster in Casseopia, a delicate little group of stars with a "lollipop handle"), NGC 436 (open cluster in Casseopia, a pretty little knot of stars), NGC 524 (elliptical galaxy in Pisces, a tough star hop), NGC 559 (open cluster in Casseopia, a beautiful bright grouping of stars), NGC 598, also known a M33 in Triangulum, (easily found, but nebulous, only the core showed well), NGC 637 (open cluster in Casseopia, a small knot of stars near Epsilon Cass), NGC 651 (planetary nebula in Perseus, also known as M76) and NGC 654 (open cluster in Casseopia, a nice little cluster with a bright star on one edge.)
Duane got a bunch of objects and I can't remember them all, but I do remember looking at Gamma Delphinus (bright double star with an Otto Struve double nearby in the same FOV), NGC 891 Caroline Herschel's galaxy in Andromeda, M74 in Pisces, M34 open cluster in Perseus, Gamma Andromeda (bright double star), and the Andromeda Galaxy with its attendant satellite galaxies, M32 and M110. These were simply awesome in Duane's 12" Lightbridge telescope.
We saw LOTS of meteors last night, but none were able to beat the first one. It was a glorious night for astronomy! 🙂